Page 76 of Unfinished

Ashley and Marcus went right into a conversation and the entire time Liam stared at me. This had gone so completely off the rails. There was a rock in the pit of my stomach. I had questions for Liam, like how did he know where I was? Why didn’t he tell me he was coming to town? Liam was going to have to open up to why he'd been dating and give me a few answers.

“Well, you are home safe. Let me know if you and Ashley want to come to a game sometime,” Marcus said. I held the bottle out to Liam and he grabbed it taking a shot from it while looking at me.

I said goodbye to Marcus, exchanging numbers with him and thanking him for making sure I got home safe. Once I locked the door, Ashley put her hand on my shoulder, then disappeared into her room. I looked at Liam and he looked at me. There was sadness and longing in his eyes and I knew we had to finish this argument, but it would wait till morning because I was far too drunk to continue it now. I also wanted one more night with him.

I held out my hand to Liam and he took it. We walked to my room, I changed into jogger shorts and a tank top while he stripped down to his boxer briefs and climbed into bed behind me. He pulled me close and buried his face in my hair. We drifted off to sleep next to each other and I pretended that everything would be okay tomorrow, even though there was a part of me that didn't believe we would be.

I woke up and Liam was holding me tight against him. I moved slightly but he just squeezed tighter.

“I can’t just be friends with you,” he whispered.

“I know,” I whispered back.

“Please be with me.”

“How did you know where I was last night?”

Liam stiffened behind me. Fear ran through me, he had been hiding something from me.

“Liam?”

“I’m working with my uncle,” he whispered.

“So?”

“My family … not everything we do is … legal.”

Rumors of the Teresi family, my dad’s warning when I first told him about Liam, and everything that I had found out on my own about the Teresi family past came rushing back to me. Liam’s family was a crime family. Rich, powerful, connected, and dangerous.

I sat up and threw the covers off me and stood spinning to look at Liam. If he had any hope of winning me over, he had better be honest with me. Liam sat up on the bed, putting his feet on the floor.

“How did you know where I was last night?” I demanded an answer to my question.

“I have men watching you.” Liam admitted.

“You have your crime family watching me?” I asked and Liam nodded after a second. “Oh my god, Liam!”

“It’s a couple of soldiers who’ve been watching. They told me about Chad and I came down as soon as I could. I wasn’t having someone try to take you away from me! Especially not fucking Chad!”

“Have you been taking dates to events hoping I’d see the pictures, be jealous, and give in to you?” I asked quietly, crossing my arms over my chest.

“If I dated other people, no one would ever suspect my feelings for you and therefore protect you from my enemies. But if you got jealous enough and decided to date me I’d be able to tell you everything and I’d put as many men on you as I wanted,” Liam explained.

“So you’ve sent your crime family to watch me and have spent the last two years trying to manipulate me?”

Liam stood and stepped over to me but I took a step back away from him and he stopped, “I wasn’t going to lose you or leave you unprotected.”

“I wasn’t in danger!”

“Yes, you fucking were!”

“What?” I gasped, taking another step back.

“In California, you had a stalker. He showed up here in Pittsburgh and I scared him off. I will always protect you because I fucking love you. I’ve never stopped loving you!”

“Love is being fucking honest with me! You knew I had a stalker and you didn’t tell me. You put me on the radar of a crime family! You’ve been manipulating everything for two years! What makes you any different from a stalker at that point?”

“Intention! I had you watched to protect you. I didn’t watch you to try to do harm. I did it to keep you safe. And if I had told you, would you have allowed the protection?”

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